World history and geography, grades 6 to 8

Units

1. 1

   Thinking like a historian: sources, evidence and time

   3 lessons

   1. Asking historical questions and using sourcesAsk a question a historian could answer and tell primary sources from secondary sources, using Anne Frank's diary as the example.
   2. Corroborating evidence and judging sourcesCompare sources about the Boston Massacre of 1770, find each author's purpose and bias, and decide how reliable each one is.
   3. Chronology, causes and effectsOrder events on a timeline that uses BCE and CE, and explain causes, effects and change over time using the printing press as the example.
2. 2

   Early humans and the first farmers

   3 lessons

   1. Hunter-gatherers and the PaleolithicDescribe how early humans found food, made tools, used fire and spread from Africa across the world during the Paleolithic.
   2. The Neolithic Revolution and the first farmersExplain how farming and the domestication of plants and animals began in several places and how it changed where and how people lived.
   3. Archaeology: how we know about early humansDescribe how archaeologists and anthropologists use artifacts, fossils, layers of earth and dating to learn about people who left no writing.
3. 3

   Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt

   3 lessons

   1. Mesopotamia: first cities and writingExplain how farming between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers led to the first cities, cuneiform writing and the laws of Hammurabi.
   2. Ancient Egypt: the Nile, pharaohs and religionExplain how the Nile's yearly flood shaped Egyptian farming, government under the pharaohs, religion, pyramids and writing.
   3. Trade, empires and the HebrewsExplain how trade linked the ancient Near East, how Assyria, Babylon and Persia built empires, and what the early Hebrews believed and where their history took them.
4. 4

   Ancient India and China

   3 lessons

   1. Early India: the Indus Valley and the Vedic ageDescribe the Indus Valley cities and how they were planned, what the Vedic age and its social order were, and the core beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism.
   2. The Maurya and Gupta empiresExplain how the Maurya emperors, above all Ashoka, united most of India and how the Gupta golden age advanced trade, mathematics and learning.
   3. Ancient China: dynasties and philosophyDescribe China's river valleys, the dynasties from Shang to Han, the ideas of Confucianism and Daoism, and how the Silk Road and the Great Wall shaped Han China.
5. 5

   Ancient Greece

   3 lessons

   1. Geography and the polisExplain how Greece's mountains and sea led to separate city-states, and compare Athens and Sparta.
   2. Athenian democracyExplain how Athens moved from rule by a few to rule by its citizens, how that democracy worked, who was left out and how it compares with ours.
   3. Persian Wars, Alexander and Greek cultureExplain how the Greek poleis beat the Persian Empire, how Alexander spread Greek ideas across Asia, and what Greek thinkers, artists and scientists left behind.
6. 6

   Ancient Rome

   3 lessons

   1. Rome: from republic to empireExplain how Rome's republic shared power, how wars and civil strife changed it, and how Augustus turned it into an empire that circled the Mediterranean.
   2. Roman law, engineering and daily lifeDescribe how Roman law grew from the Twelve Tables, how roads and aqueducts worked, and how citizens, slaves and soldiers lived.
   3. The rise of Christianity and the fall of RomeExplain how Christianity grew from a small Jewish movement into the empire's official religion, and give the main reasons the western empire fell in 476 CE.
7. 7

   The spread of world religions

   3 lessons

   1. Judaism, Christianity and their spreadDescribe the core beliefs of Judaism and Christianity as their followers hold them, and explain how each began and how Christianity spread across the Roman world.
   2. Hinduism and BuddhismDescribe the core beliefs and practices of Hinduism and Buddhism as their followers hold them, and explain how Buddhism spread from India across Asia.
   3. Islam's origins and teachingsDescribe the life of Muhammad, the Quran and the Five Pillars as Muslims hold them, and explain how Islam spread across three continents by 750 CE.
8. 8

   The Islamic world and African kingdoms

   3 lessons

   1. The caliphates and the Islamic golden ageExplain how Muslim rulers built a large empire between 632 and 750 and how Baghdad became a centre of science, mathematics, medicine and trade.
   2. West African kingdoms: Ghana, Mali and SonghaiExplain how trade in gold and salt across the Sahara made Ghana, Mali and Songhai rich, and describe Mansa Musa's pilgrimage and the learning of Timbuktu.
   3. East and Southern Africa: Swahili city-states and Great ZimbabweDescribe Aksum's trading kingdom, the Swahili city-states of the Indian Ocean coast and the gold-trading stone city of Great Zimbabwe.
9. 9

   Medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire

   3 lessons

   1. Feudalism and manorialismExplain how medieval lords, knights and peasants were bound by land, service and protection, and how a manor fed everyone on it.
   2. The Church and the CrusadesDescribe how the Church shaped medieval life, why Pope Urban II called the First Crusade, how the Crusades unfolded, and what they changed.
   3. The Byzantine EmpireDescribe why Constantinople was a great city, what Justinian's reign and law gave the world, and how the Eastern Church and the empire's culture reached Russia.
10. 10

    China, Japan, Korea and the Mongols

    3 lessons

    1. Tang and Song ChinaExplain how the Tang and Song dynasties made China rich and inventive, name their key inventions and say how civil service exams changed who ran the government.
    2. Japan and KoreaExplain how geography shaped Japan and Korea, how Japan's shoguns and samurai ruled, and what Korea created while borrowing from China.
    3. The MongolsExplain how the Mongols conquered much of Eurasia, how they ruled it and how their empire joined East and West.
11. 11

    The Maya, Aztec and Inca

    3 lessons

    1. The MayaDescribe Maya city-states in the rainforest, how they farmed, and how their writing, calendar and mathematics worked.
    2. The AztecDescribe Tenochtitlan, how Aztec society was organised, how the empire ruled by tribute, and the role of religion and trade.
    3. The IncaDescribe how the Inca ruled a mountain empire along the Andes with roads, terrace farming, a labour tax and knotted-cord record keeping.
12. 12

    Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific Revolution

    3 lessons

    1. The Italian RenaissanceExplain why the Renaissance began in the trading cities of Italy and describe humanism and the work of artists such as Leonardo and Michelangelo.
    2. The ReformationDescribe how Martin Luther's ideas and the printing press began the Protestant Reformation and how the Catholic Church responded.
    3. The Scientific RevolutionDescribe the scientific method and the work of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton that changed how Europeans explained the heavens and the world.
13. 13

    Exploration, empires and the Atlantic world

    3 lessons

    1. Why Europe explored: motives and technologyExplain why Portugal and Spain sent ships into unknown seas in the 1400s and name the tools that let them cross open ocean and come home.
    2. Spanish and Portuguese conquestExplain how small Spanish forces overthrew the Aztec and Inca empires, why they won, and how Spain and Portugal divided the new lands.
    3. The Columbian Exchange and the Atlantic slave tradeExplain how plants, animals and diseases moved between the Americas and the Old World after 1492, and how the Atlantic slave trade grew out of the demand for labour on American plantations.
14. 14

    The age of revolutions

    3 lessons

    1. The EnlightenmentExplain the Enlightenment ideas of natural rights and consent of the governed and match each idea to the thinker who argued it.
    2. The American and French RevolutionsCompare the causes and results of the American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799).
    3. Latin American independenceExplain how the revolution in Haiti and the wars led by Bolivar and San Martin ended European colonial rule in Latin America between 1791 and 1825.
15. 15

    The Industrial Revolution and the modern world

    3 lessons

    1. Why the Industrial Revolution began in BritainExplain why machines and factories began in Britain in the 1700s, naming the resources, farming changes and inventions that came together.
    2. Factories, cities and working lifeDescribe how factories and fast-growing cities changed daily life in the 1800s and how workers and reformers pushed for change.
    3. Imperialism and the modern worldExplain why industrial nations built empires in the 1800s, how they took Africa and parts of Asia, and how people there responded.